Birds eye view

The hot arid desert shone like gold in the burning afternoon. The heavily chromed, metallic vultures swooped down on the bubbling tarmac for a spontaneous conference. Their claws stuck to the tar like spoons in hot caramel. Although they despised each other, they were similar. So any hint amongst themselves for a meeting would be taken seriously. And they would gather once in a while.
"Think this party will last longer?" asked Sukuzi, hoping for approval and an aye from his LED-blinking-eyed buddies. "It's just a matter of time, and the last tree will be gone. Then it's for us to take a call on what stays and not." said Donha optimistically, and happy with his recent offering in the desert-named after a musical muse for the humans. Fita did not respond. He sulked and always looked miserable. Dhunyai, the side kick and survivor from the last onslaught from Sukuzi, straightened his neck out to spot something afar. He flapped his wings in glee as another tree vaporised in the horizon. "It's a dead give away," he cackled, "how humans love us and watch us eat them from the inside. Pity MG is not around to see this. After decades of squabbling with Earth lovers, he's given in. Now the party is all ours, I figure."
"But we need to keep it down, least they wake up." They looked upward to see where that came from. It was Yotoya, the largest of the birds, as he thundered in from the sky. His incredibly large feet burrowed into the melting road till its gigantic talons sunk into the black goo as he weighed in to relax. Towering over the others, his shadow intimidated the other wannabees. "Release a hybrid now and then, till the earth's liquid lasts. Then we'll go all electric." He preached as though to benefit the rest, only to hatch his own plans behind his diabolical beak. "But be wary of a local bird about to lay a nestful."
"What local pigeon encroaches upon our wingspan here?" Asked Dorf, another big, arrogant and aging vulture. He hated Yotoya, but kept his tone down in his presence. Yotoya spoke. "It may not be a big threat now, but it is getting some serious attention. And you know how precious attention is, right?" He turned to Fita with that, wanting to taunt him more with subtle undertones. Fita hated that look. "This is a growing playground. It's big, and the humans do not seem to fight us with norms for Earth's sake. Everything goes. Keep the gold dust ready. They sell out easily."

Donha and Sukuzi hopped about unfazed by the conversation. They had their own schemes to hatch. Dhunyai scanned the ground for bits to nibble. Dorf and Yotoya faced opposite directions. Secretly, they all wondered about Taat, the local, and what its new feathers would look like.

Zoey Thea Kariyal

A new addition in our family!

Traveloged

I really cherish having had timeout to drive out of town. Clean mountain air, Drawing and taking pictures, curious kids peeking into your drawings, natural home cooked food with local families, their dogs walking with you alongside a river and through forests, hiring an old bike and exploring the place, the intense pleasure of writing about all this- are now luxuries. In fact this is the real luxury, not things anymore. One can always have stuff which will always be mass produced. Its timeout to places that will really matter now. And I have great friends I can do this with. As environment degradation chomps into natural heavens, these beautiful locations will become even more scarce. Archived here are some travelogs in the past-
http://archive.arjunkariyal.com/self/getthehellout/index.html
Sunderdhunga being the jewel of this crown-
http://archive.arjunkariyal.com/self/getthehellout/sunderdhunga.html

This is one of those moments when I am looking back. Ouch, this hurts.

Pushkar Panoramas

View of the street below from our room window from Baba hotel. The hotels here in Pushkar are basically people's homes converted to hotels. Of 29 panoramas, this is my first top down view!

View of Brahm ghat under construction from the Pushkar Palace side.

One comic coming up on this trip!

Kids in Pushkar- what a hug!

These kids saw me clicking around and wanted me to take their picture. As I aimed the cam at them, next was this instant pose- all arms and smiles!

Pushkar 2009

Again, but this time with Anand and Ani. We left Delhi at 5 15 am and took 12 hours to reach. Talking, listening to music and stopping at Jaipur stretched our trip. On reaching Pushkar, we checked out Pink Floyd hotel which has a monarch-of-all-I-survey view from the terrace (3rd from top right) but log into multi-colored Baba lodge (top right corner) in 2 rooms for 2 days. The lake is being dug up these days and looks like it will get a cleaner look in a years time. On walking down the lane to Brahma mandir, I met the same sadhu I met 2 years back (2nd from top left). I recalled him because I had taken his picture last time also. As usual he wanted Rs. 10. Obviously he didn't recognise me.

At 40 degrees by 11 am, this is clearly off-season. The incredible heat kept us snoozing indoors most of the time- just like the dogs at the temple steps (the animals in Pushkar seem to be the life of this place). Our food through the next 2 days was pasta, Rajasthani thali, Israeli thali, pizza, 'Healthy' breakfast made of chai, meusli, juice and toast. My target of 1000 pictures in one day in Pushkar was beaten by the heat... aargh!

On day 3, we left heaven and stayed a night at the very clean hotel Khadim RTDC- a government run hotel in Ajmer. After a quick thali at Mango Masala- a local and very famous restaurant, we ended up snoozing again through the day. We took off on Monday morning at 9 and reached Delhi at 3pm. The way back is always quicker.

change up gears now!

Spotted a Bentley Continental GT on the way to work today. As it overtook me (obviously) I noticed something about it, which I just had to get a second look of. Thanks to the traffic ahead, it couldn't go too far, so I caught up with it and had a good look at this work of art. What caught my fancy was the backside of the car. The surface has nothing but the sexy metal swooping down with the very subtle light cluster and the logo. The paint job was obviously hand done, with every speckle rubbed and polished like it was the only mission given to the polisher. About the light cluster, it was free of glittering plastic- Just on color in one simple shape, unlike the whites or the yellows and reds like in the other cars. The solitary Bentley emblem in the centre said it all, with no names or any other words screaming at you in italics.
Now here's the point. Compare this to the hazaar things other cars have plastered on their backsides- three parts of the brand- the logo and symbol, the local company's logo, the model of the car, angles and cuts in the metal, protrusions, bulges in the lights, oversized bumpers, multi-color light clusters that looks like a mini discotheque... aargh. Why can't we keep it simple and clean, bereft of these unnecessary frills? Or maybe that's industry standard which accepts the dumbing down of a people and continues to deliver sub-standard product designs.

this way

my best on acrylic yet. starting 1am and finishing at 5 am-